Bid to expand number of before-and-after-school places

Inner West Council will create an extra 45 before-and-after school care places to ease the chronic shortage in the inner west.

Council has responded to the demand by applying to the NSW Government Before and After School Care Fund to expand enrolled placements at the Camdenville Outside School Hours Care service and Marrickville West Outside School Hours Care service.

The additional places will increase Inner West Council’s outside-school-hours places to 455.

It’s estimated 80-90 families will benefit.

“It’s now five years since it was reported that the inner west was experiencing the biggest baby boom in the country,” said Inner West Council Administrator Richard Pearson.

“Those babies have started school and put immense pressure on the outside-school-hours system,” he said.

“We estimate that there are now about 11,000 children of primary school age school living in our local government area, with a projection of a further 1,625 children in this age group by 2017.

“It’s increasingly evident that this growing demand for outside-school-hours places is outstripping supply by a large margin,” he said.

“That’s why Council is doing its best to try and ease this situation, which is causing a lot of stress for many inner west families,” Mr Pearson said.

Council will apply to the NSW Government Before and After School Care Fund for two grants of $30,000 for each care service, at Camdenville and Marrickville West.

Council expects the new places will available by the commencement of the 2017 school year.

Local councils across NSW have for many years struggled to meet the demand from the
community for outside-school-hours services.

In recognition of the widespread unmet demand, the NSW Government announced the establishment of the $20 million Before and After School Care Fund as an election commitment.

The Fund provides one-off grants of up to $30,000 to NSW schools to assist with the creation of new before and after school care services.